Residential, industrial, agricultural water and oil based wastes are potentially a rich source of carbon that may be recycled or transformed to fuels. A prerequisite for transformation to fuel is generating a clean and dry solid feed source, which the centrifugal filter variations of this invention are designed to do. Unprocessed wastes often include increasingly scarce fresh water, and potentially valuable sources of hydrocarbon fuels. Disposal of wastes are now regulated under discharge limits found in numerous Federal guidelines covering Industrial Pre-treatment, National Pollution Discharge, Effluent Limitations, and Concentrated Animal Feedlot. Many wastes sources are excluded from landfills, and land application is restricted for reasons of health and environmental safety. Current municipal and animal waste treatment systems employ some combination of chemical additives and mechanical settling means to separate solids from water, which are costly to operate and maintain. By contrast, the double chambered high speed centrifugal filtration of this invention will purify or refine fluids generated in the solids-liquids separation, as well as dry and stabilize the solid products. This combination is relatively small, mobile and does not require chemical pretreatment. In various formats the centrifugal filter of this invention will generate fuel and energy by means of well known thermal processes, including flash pyrolysis and fuel reforming chemistries. The centrifugal filter reactor column embodiments include means and methods to purify water, generate useful hydrocarbons and electric power in highly integrated and stacked formats for continuous processing. These formats represent a significant contribution to cost mitigation in waste management.
The filtration apparatus of this invention also addresses the need to separate solids contaminated, waste water from emulsified fats and oils, including drilling muds. The flat wire apertures of this device successfully break the emulsion, which may thereafter be continuously separated into waste solids, water and oil phases without chemicals. A further improvement in purification (refining) of water and oil or other hydrocarbons is achieved in the high throughput centrifugal filter cone using selective adsorbents. This combination device removes and releases dissolved solids from the solvating liquids, while regenerating the adsorbent in a series of continuous cycles.